26 October 2014

NAPLES, Italy - Gaiola is a tiny island off the coast of Posilipo,
Naples. It is a beautiful private island surrounded by sparkling clear water
and spectacular views that would make anyone’s heart go pitter pat. For
the reclusive millionaires who have owned it, it probably seemed like the
perfect place for a summer villa, the perfect place to play and indulge in
their vices far from prying eyes.

Island of Gailoa, (Naples, Italy)

It is perfect, yes, yet this idyllic Mediterranean
retreat remains abandoned. Its buildings are crumbling, and its sun kissed
cobbled streets are in ruin. No one dares to live here anymore. The grim tales
that have been told of suicide, murder, illness and financial ruin that have
dogged previous owners prove that no one is safe here. Fear rules.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, in 1874 to
be exact, Luigi de Negri purchased the island. It was de Negri who built the
white villa that stands on the island today. He was a successful businessman but
not long after he built the villa, his company unexpectedly went bankrupt. This
once very rich man was suddenly very poor.

A Stone Bridge Connects the Island's Two Sections

In the spring of 1911, sea Captain Gaspar Albenga was
piloting his boat around Gaiola, pondering the idea of buying the island. He
never returned, and no trace of him, or his boat, has ever been found.

Over the years, people have talked about the
tragedies connected to the island, but it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the
roll-call of doom really began. It started when owner Hans Braun was murdered. Not
long after that his widow drowned in the sea not far the island. The next
owner, Otto Grunback, suffered a fatal heart-attack while on vacation there,
and the owner after Grunback committed suicide in a Swiss mental
hospital.

From Above it Seems an Idylic Paradise

The next two island dwellers didn’t die but suffered
other tragedies. The Baron Karl Paul Langheim ended in total financial ruin
while Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat, lost his only son to suicide. Agnelli’s
troubles continued when his nephew Umberto, whom he was grooming to take over
Fiat, died from a rare form of cancer at the age of 33.

Next in line for a Gaiola misfortune was the
eccentric tycoon, John Paul Getty. In 1973 his 16 year old grandson, John Paul
Getty III, was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia. Getty refused
to pay the ransom because he thought it was a hoax. When the kidnappers
realized they were not being taken seriously, they sent Getty a lock of the
boy’s hair along with one of his ears. Getty paid up.

Stone Steps Lead to the Sea

The last owner of the island was jailed on fraud
charges when his insurance company suddenly closed its doors in 1978. All just
coincidences you say? Maybe.

But there is also this: Gaiola is full of ruins from
the Roman era. Up until the nineteenth century a submerged Roman building,
called the School of Virgil, was clearly visible in the waters near the island.
It was generally believed that this was the place where Virgil taught the
mystical arts. That may be why there has been so much interest in this part of
the coast in the past.

One theory is that the potions created here by Virgil
and his pupils have permanently polluted the water, and that is the reason the
curse affects those who linger here too long.

The Island's Secluded Dock

Or, if we go back to 1820 when archaeologist William
Bechi owned the property, we find that Bechi began several archaeological digs.
The digs brought to light several Roman buildings that had been buried for
centuries. When Bechi died, his daughter sold the property to Luigi de Negri, the
man who built the villa.

After De Negri went bankrupt, the property was put up
for auction and purchased by the Marquis del Tufo. There were two more owners
after del Tufo, one being the British Admiral Nelson Foley, brother of Conan
Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and the second was the family of Italian
Senator Guiseppe Paratore.

In the mid 1960’s the Senator’s nephew made a
startling discovery. While organizing a bookcase in the living room of the
island’s villa, he found a square of canvas attached to the wall behind the
books. Under the canvas there was a fresco depicting a large female head with
snakes for hair, a Gorgon. According to Greek mythology, their power is so
strong, they can turn anyone who looks at them into stone.

The Senator, who understood the evil implications of
the Gorgon, was frightened by the prospect of bringing bad luck to his family,
and ordered his nephew to cover the face. His nephew did as he was asked but
not before he had photographed it.

Silent Stones of Gaiola

He took the photographs of the Gorgon mask to a
member of the Institute of Restoration in Rome, who dated it between the 2nd
and 3rd century AD. The expert also confirmed that it was quite possible that
the mask, popular in both Greek and Roman mythology as a protective deity, had
been removed from it’s original location on the island, and affixed to the wall
in the library of the villa.

And just maybe, moving that protective Gorgon symbol
by someone who didn’t understand its meaning or power is the root of all the
evil that has plagued this beautiful place for centuries.

We may never know the real reason why this island has
such a dark past, but today it is part of a marine protected area under the
jurisdiction of the Region of Campania. You can visit if feel brave, here’s
their web site. http://www.areamarinaprotettagaiola.it

19 October 2014

CHIAVARI, Italy – As a kid one of the
things that fascinated me about my father, who was born in Italy, was that he
had been a cowboy when he was in the army. I would listen to his stories of
riding out into the vast hinterlands of America’s west, rounding up wild horses
and turning those bucking broncos into serviceable animals the U.S. Calvary
could use.

The
Butteri of the Maremma

He would tell tales of how he learned
to stand up on the bare back of a galloping horse, like the Roman gladiators
did at spectacles held at the Coliseum for the Emperor. And he was proud
of being able to reach down and pick a handkerchief up from the ground while
his horse barreled along at top speed, a trick that required not only skill,
but a large amount of courage as well.

It was all true. He had the photos to
prove it. But it wasn’t until we went to Argentina and were invited to have
lunch at an estancia, outside of Buenos Aires, that I saw it for myself.
It happened quite by chance, my father had been talking about his experiences
in the Calvary, and the next thing I knew we were saddling up for a ride into
the countryside with our host and some of the gauchos.

Maremmana
Cattle

I watched as my father, who was in his
seventies, slipped his foot into the stirrup of one of the largest horses I’d
ever seen, take hold of the reins and levitate into the saddle as if gravity
had been suspended. He sat that horse like he had just saddled up the day
before instead of 40 years ago.

It wasn’t until I moved to Italy and
visited a cousin who lives in Lazio, near the border with Tuscany, that all the
cowboy stuff came together. His leg was in a cast, an injury sustained while
riding his horse and that was how I learned about the Italian cowboys of the
Maremma, the butteri. It was then that I realized that my father, city
boy that he was, had spent his early years around horses, and that explained
everything.

A
Buttero's Life

Unlike my cousin and
my father, the cowboys of the Maremma work with cows. Big cows, enormous cows
that weigh up to 2,500 lbs and have very large horns, and they do it on
horseback with only a long wooden stick with a hook on one end to help them.

There are not a lot of
butteri left in Italy, but then again there are not a lot of Maremmana cattle
either, only about 7,500 according to the last cattle census, although they are
making a comeback.

Not
Your Everyday Kind of Cowboy

While the Maremmana are gaining in
numbers, they have been listed by the European Union as potentially at risk of
extinction. They are not, in fact, endangered, but having that status entitles
the farms that raise them to subsidies that help assure the breed’s survival.
And with an increase in the number of cattle, it is hoped the number of butteri
will increase as well, continuing a tradition that goes back to the days of the
Etruscans.

Today, men, horses and cattle roam the
thousands of acres of recovered marshlands that run along the coast of Tuscany
and Lazio. Maremmana cattle are raised primarily for their meat, which is sold
in selected butcher shops in Tuscany. It is also on the menu in Tuscan
universities, but difficult to find anywhere else.

It is generally believed by the locals
that saving the cattle will also preserve the century-old traditions of the butteri
and increase related farm jobs. Others think it will promote tourism. One state
owned farm already offers tourists early morning horse rides with the butteri,
and will soon have the cowboys teaching riders how to knot the butteri’s
rope.

At the Merca

The butteri still participate in many
local festivals including the Festival of Sant’Antonio Abate on January 17th
when animals are blessed and paraded in the center of Tarquinia, Tuscania,
Marta and Valentano, in Lazio. In April a rodeo, merca in Italian, is
held at the Roccaccia, not far from Tarquinia as well as in Blera and Monte
Romano in Lazio and Alberese in Tuscany. The Festival of Sant’Antonio Abate is
also celebrated in many other towns in Italy, primarily in rural areas.

About Me

Hi,my name is Phyllis Macchioni and I’m a free lance writer.
My articles have been published in the Washington Post, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Chicago Tribune, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Pittsburgh Gazzette, Women's Wear Daily and other Conde Nast publications. My articles have been translated into Italian and Arabic.